MOL, Croatia Free to Sell INA Shares Amid Arbitration -MOL

By Veronika Gulyas

BUDAPEST--Hungary-based regional oil and gas firm MOL Nyrt. (MOL.BU) on Tuesday denied press reports of a share holding freeze on its Croatian subsidiary INA d.d. (INA.ZG) amid an ongoing arbitration with Croatia.

The Arbitral Tribunal in an order Aug. 16 ruled that it isn't prepared to restrict the sale of shares in INA for now, therefore both MOL and the Croatian government, and all other shareholders in INA remain free to sell their shares in INA even amid the arbitration procedure, MOL Group said in an official statement.

MOL said it had to provide this limited information about the Arbitral Tribunal's decision despite it being confidential, in order to "correct the erroneous news reports that the Tribunal has issued or will soon issue a freeze on MOL's and the [Croatian] government's share holding in INA."

There are two ongoing arbitration cases in the Croatia-MOL case on INA. One is at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, and the other is at the World Bank's International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes.

MOL and Croatia are involved in a bribery case in which, in 2012, former Croatian prime minister Ivo Sanader was convicted of accepting bribes while he was in office, to allow MOL to have management rights over INA, according to a Croatian court.

MOL has repeatedly said the case was politically motivated and denied all these allegations. The company said Zsolt Hernadi, MOL's chairman and chief executive has proven that the allegations are unfounded and the case is without merit.

Write to Veronika Gulyas at [e-mail]; Twitter: @VeronikaGulyas1